The study of my Family Tree

One of the cemeteries I visited on my vacation was the Thompson Wells Lot, Hopkinton Historical Cemetery #44. I have to say, if my friend Lauri hadn’t of taken me back there, I’d never have found it myself. It’s pretty far back into the woods off of Route 3 in Hopkinton. You also have to go in sort of a round about to get to it as there is a big gully behind it where they dug out gravel to make Route 3 an actual road way back when.

Although there are many burial markers in the Thompson Wells lot (approximately 19), the only ones with names are Thompson Wells (1746-1811) and his wife Elizabeth Palmer (abt 1749-1791). Thompson was the son of Thomas Wells 4th and Sarah Thompson and would have been my second cousin 5 times removed. His great-grandfather was Thomas Wells Jr. who along with his father, Thomas Sr., was the first Wells to come to Rhode Island from Massachusetts. (I’ll also note that I mentioned Thompson yesterday’s post about the voting of the Constitution.)

Here are some pictures I took of the cemetery:

Thompson Wells Lot #44: Front view of Thompson and Elizabeth’s stones

Thompson Wells Lot #44: Thompson’s stone

Thompson Wells Lot #44: Elizabeth’s headstone

Thompson Wells Lot #44: Thompson’s footstone

Thompson Wells Lot #44: Elizabeth’s footstone

Thompson Wells Lot #44

Thompson Wells Lot #44: Panoramic View

Thompson Wells Lot #44: Side view with field stones

Thompson Wells Lot #44: Field Stones

Thompson Wells Lot #44: Headstones up from, footstones behind

Thompson Wells Lot #44: Me and Thompson

Thompson Wells Lot #44: Side view with fieldstones in foreground

Don’t mind my orange hat. Apparently it’s hunting season in October and you have to wear orange to not be shot by hunters. Lauri insinuated that many of the hunters have been drinking and judging by the amount of small empty plastic liquor bottles we saw on the ground as we hiked back here, I’d say she might be right.

So who else is buried here? Well, since all the other stones are field stones, they’re most likely older burials than Thompson and Elizabeth’s. Either that or they were too poor to be able to afford stones like they were. If they were other Wells family members, his parents might be there as we don’t know where they are buried. Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

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What a great article. I went to kindergarten through high school with the decendents of both of these people, Debbie Wells and Richard and Stephan Thompson. Hundreds of years later the families are still thriving.